Tag: Thursday Throwback

For this throwback I present to you an absolute classic from the heyday of the production duo Ed Rush & Optical (c. 99):

You’ve got to love the calmness yet creepiness of the intro, the way the initial bassline breathes, and of course the riff at about 3:20 (although it wears a bit thin by the second half, but I can forgive this because everything else about this track is top-notch).

As I recall, the labels on my vinyl copy of this were actually flipped, so for the longest time I was under the impression that this side was “Bacteria” (I’m still half-convinced that might be the case 😉

To be honest I’m not sure how many times I actually played this track in a set – maybe once or twice as an opener? I think I’ll have to increase that number soon.

I was hoping to cover a few other techy drum & bass artists before coming back to Kemal and/or Rob Data, but screw it…

I remember when this track came out in 2002. I was living in Montreal at the time. I specifically remember listening to it on my crappy little 128 MB MP3 player on the way to work – a metro ride and then a walk in the frigid death cold winter. I also remember Optiv (of C4C) playing it around the same time-frame at some club.

That’s my story. End of post.

This week’s throwback is a track from Seba & Paradox. Vocals are courtesy of Robert Manos, who’s done several tracks with Seba, and occasionally Paradox.This is the “Version” version (go figure). The A side is much more vocal.I originally came across this tune on vinyl when it was released (2005) and was so close to buying it, but thought, “Nah, it’s not really my style, I won’t play it”. Funny how things change though – I just played the digital copy of this a couple nights ago.

Here’s a summery-sounding throwback to warm you up on this grey wintry day. This is probably one of my favourite cuts off of Klute’s 2004 album No One’s Listening Anymore, and definitely one of my Klute favs in general.

While most components of the tracks are pretty simplistic I think they come together quite well and I’d even venture to say its greater than the sum of its individual parts. And who could forget the pièce de résistance: the very up-lifting modulation from Dm to Fm. (Just don’t try harmonic mixing during these parts, hehe 😉

Check it out…

Also, don’t forget about the YouTube playlist!

Happy February people! Apparently yesterday was half-way between the start of winter and the start of spring. Thank fuck.

Here’s an intelligent/atmospheric classic circa 95. Unfortunately, no time for commentary this week as I need to go shovel another 700 lbs of snow!

Happy Thursday! This week’s throwback is a track by yours truly, circa 2003. Surprisingly, I didn’t have renders of many tracks from this period, so I only had a few to choose from.

It’s always fun to go back and listen to how I’ve progressed – or in some cases haven’t! – over the past few years. I find most of my tracks from this period to be a bit underdeveloped. This is probably one of my stronger ideas, but as you can hear the track may be a bit longer than justified (the third drop at the end is probably unnecessary, haha). Suffice to say I’ll forgive you if you jump ahead in places 😉

One of these days I’d like to dig up more old tracks, polish them/refine them and either give them a proper release or give them away. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime I’ve posted a few others, as-is, on my SoundCloud.

I knew for sure that I wanted to share a track from V Recording’s V Classics compilation (c. 1997) for this week’s throwback… but which one? It was a tough decision, but ultimately I settled on this:

Most people would probably know of Krust from his classic track, Warhead, but personally I think this is a much more well-rounded track. The intro may be a touch long, and the drop a tad repetitive, but I find the two balance out quite well. And as with most Krust tracks of this period there’s lots of interesting ear-candy – squelches, weird industrial noises, etc.

This was one of my first vinyls and I’m sure I started many a set with this track. I’d definitely suggest finding yourself a copy of V Classics if you were at all a fan of drum & bass during this era – I’m sure it will bring back lots of memories. And even if you weren’t it will be a good lesson in drum & bass history 🙂

For the first throwback of 2011 I’m going to share another track that helped to solidify my love of drum & bass, and more specifically, atmospheric/intelligent drum & bass.

For those who don’t know, LTJ Bukem is generally regarded as one of the pioneers of the genre and still active today. He ran Good Looking and related labels, known for the classic Points in Time compilations.

The credit on this is actually Apollo Two – Atlantis (I Need you) (LTJ Bukem Remix). It was released in 93, which for some reason I never fully realized until today. Anyway, enjoy!

Last one of 2010! Going to take a (brief) break from the techy stuff this week and end the year off with something a little more organic, circa 1997. I would credit this as one of the tunes that got me into drum & bass and I’m sure I’m not the only one. The fact that it had a music video made it that much more accessible – I actually remember seeing it on Much Music. Despite being accessible, this is by no means a cliché track and it definitely broke new ground at the time. Check it:

See you in new year!